Michael Mayer’s Las Vegas-Set Staging of Verdi’s Rigoletto Opens October 20, With Pablo Heras-Casado Conducting a Cast Led By George Gagnidze, Olga Peretyatko, and Stephen Costello; Later performances will be conducted by Roberto Abbado, starring Željko Luèiæ, Piotr Beczala, and Nadine Sierra in her Met debut

Michael Mayer’s Las Vegas-Set Staging of Verdi’s Rigoletto Opens

October 20, With Pablo Heras-Casado Conducting a Cast Led By

George Gagnidze, Olga Peretyatko, and Stephen Costello

Later performances will be conducted by Roberto Abbado, starring

Željko Luèiæ, Piotr Beczala, and Nadine Sierra in her Met debut

New York, NY (October 14, 2015) – Verdi’s Rigoletto returns to the Met October 20 for fifteen performances. Michael Mayer’s 2013 production, set in a 1960s Las Vegas casino, will star George Gagnidze in the title role opposite two singers in company role debuts: Olga Peretyatko as Gilda and Stephen Costello as the Duke. Spanish maestro Pablo Heras-Casado will lead the initial performances of the opera, which also feature Štefan Kocán as Sparafucile and Swedish mezzo-soprano Katarina Leoson, in her Met debut, as Maddalena. Later performances this season will star Željko Luèiæ in the title role and Piotr Beczala as the Duke, roles both sang in the new production premiere of Mayer’s staging, opposite 2009 National Council Auditions winner Nadine Sierra in her Met debut as Gilda. Roberto Abbado conducts a cast that also features Russian bass Dimitry Ivashchenko in his Met debut as Sparafucile and Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Maddalena.

Further information, including biographies of principal artists, is available in our online press room here.

Performances: October 20, 23, 28, 31eve; November 4, 7eve, 10, 13, 16, 19; December 2, 5eve, 8, 12mat, 17. Curtain times vary: complete schedule here. Running time: 3 hours, 6 minutes, including two intermission.

Tickets begin at $25; for prices, more information, or to place an order, please call (212) 362-6000 or visit www.metopera.org. Special rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling (212) 341-5410 or visiting www.metopera.org/groups.

Same-day $25 rush tickets for all performances of Rigoletto are available on a first-come, first-served basis on the Met’s Web site. Tickets will go on sale for performances Monday-Friday at noon, matinees four hours before curtain, and Saturday evenings at 2pm. To enter, click here.

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